Euro indispensable for single market (5)

(ANSA) - Rome, June 12 - The euro is indispensable for the single market to work, European Affairs Minister Paolo Savona said Tuesday. "The euro not only has positive aspects, but indispensable ones," he told the foreign press during the presentation of his autobiography. "If you want a single market, you must have a single currency". He said "my position is that the construction is a limited construction, which must be perfected". He said "the European Central Bank must be equipped with a statute similar to that of the Federal Reserve".
    But he said that Italy should have asked for an opt-out on the euro like Britain did in 1992, and then prepared to enter the single currency properly.
    Savona said he did not need to reassure Europe about his reported anti-euro views. "It's the press that must reassure Europe, not me, you created the problem..." he told the foreign press club.
    Savona, a respected economist, said he would only speak about his new post - which he got after being barred from the economy ministry by President Sergio Mattarella for his anti-euro views - when "the government line is decided". Savona, 82, said at the presentation of his autobiography Like A Nightmare And Like A dream that "I will speak about my activity as a minister when the orientation of the government on the problems to be tackled is decided". Savona, a former industry minister in the Ciampi government in 1992-3, said "I am preparing to face complex and delicate problems". Savona's initial rejection led to the failure of the first government bid by the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the anti-migrant Euroskeptic League. It was revived when he was moved to his current position.